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This is why we hear so much nowadays of oral expression; of attempts to use the newspapers, the magazines, the newer books; of student criticism; of school papers; of interschool correspondence; of the acting of plays, and of various other departures from the beaten track. These are experiments in reality-attempts to direct boys and girls in doing precisely those things which they will most insistently continue to do all their days.

For the mere conning and saying of lessons is at best very like a tread mill, a performance not easily duplicated outside the school. It certainly does not enlist the whole-hearted earnestness of the pupil and hence often signally fails to produce any deep or lasting effect. Boys and girls must enter into their speaking and reading with that zest and purpose which actuate them in their clubs and games. They must care to win, must study to win, must rejoice in winning. They will do so if their school life is real life. The resourceful teacher will make it so.

Such is the spirit which animates the leaders of the new English movement. They are not mere iconoclasts. They do not favor anarchy or welcome chaos. They are not unmindful of the values which the methods in vogue for several decades are capable of unfolding. They are not wilfully ignoring the excellent traditions. But they would infuse the English work of the time with the best educational ideals of the time. They would keep abreast of progress, would walk in the van.

They are aware that conditions seemingly beyond their control render their task appallingly difficult. The country as a whole has indifferent standards of linguistic culture. Often there seem to be no standards at all. In many communities less than ten per cent. of the children may be said to receive any favorable linguistic or literary influence whatever in their homes, while on the street they are laughed at for their pains when they speak as in the school they have been taught to speak. The fathers read the newspapers and nothing better. The mothers read the lighter magazines or nothing at all. At the best, the school can never raise the English of all the boys and girls far above the community level, and that is often painfully low. The wonder is, not that we do so badly in our English instruction, but that we produce any visible effects at all.

The situation in the school itself is not always favorable. Other departments fail to support by example and precept the efforts of

the English teachers. The pupils are required to take too many hours of work and have not time for thoroughness or ripening. The English teachers are overwhelmed with pupils and slight the work, or destroy their health and energy in an heroic attempt to do justice to individuals where only mass instruction is possible. Actual statistics show that the mortality among composition teachers is in many instances actually greater than on the bloody field of Gettysburg. And yet it is a useless and unnecessary sacrifice. If the number of English teachers in the high schools of the United States were doubled, the total expense of this all important subject would not far surpass that of the sciences, while if it were computed with relation to the actual time given to it, far less. No reasonable man will deny that the intolerable and unfortunate conditions to which I have referred could and should be removed.

The actual facts are at hand in the famous Hopkins report and will soon be given to the country. They should be urged upon the attention of all supervisors and all boards of education. For the sake of results, for the sake of precious human life and strength, they should be acted upon without delay.

Along these lines, then, lie the possibilities of advance in English teaching. A unity of purpose, reassuring in its depth and strength, seems to pervade our ranks. The social character and social activities of the school begin to bulk large in our conception of what English training may and ought to do. Not forgetting that life is more than meat, and culture more than industry, to life itself we look for those aims which shall direct our efforts. Nor will we hope to work miracles and heal multitudes when we know quite well that upon each separate head must hands be laid.

We respect our high calling. Our land is one of many interests, many occupations, many religions, many races even. What shall constitute us all Americans? What, indeed, but pride in our common country, its history and its free institutions; love of the Stars and Stripes which symbolizes them; knowledge of our common language by means of which we share the common life; and familiarity with our nation's literature, which reflects our history, which embodies our spirit, and disseminates our ideals. This language and this literature it is our privilege to teach. This we would do with an eye single to the making of competent and useful citizens, ready and able to serve others and possessed of the means of ever widening and enriching their own intellectual lives.

The Normal School Ideal

FRANK WEBSTER SMITH, PATERSON (N. J.) NORMAL

A

TRAINING SCHOOL.

VII.

THE PRACTICE SCHOOL.

S I have tried to indicate in previous articles, the practice school is the center of normal school work, not an attachment or sequel to that work. Rightly organized it will enhance and enlarge scholarship and make it more effectual. The professional studies take value and meaning only as the practice school becomes the helper and interpreter of such studies often the starting point, as well as the summing point for pursuing them, as shown with some detail in articles II and III. I mean by this that the foundation ideas in such studies as administration, management, psychology, method, etc. must come from a study of actual school conditions and environment, as seen in the practice school and its sister schools, while such subjects as sociology or sociological pedagogy must find their beginnings and apperceptive basis not only in the school or schools furnished for observation and practice, but in the wider circle of which these schools are a part, the neighborhood, village, or city. From all points of view the practice school is the fundamental agency for developing and interpreting educational ideas. Its relation to the normal school is a vital one and its organization becomes not merely highly important, but really the determining factor in normal school efficiency.

As a matter of fact, however, the relations of practice department to professional study in the normal school frequently do not permit these basal principles to be carried out and rarely permit them to be carried out with their full implications. The relations are extremely varied in different countries and even in the same country. Sometimes the relations are so loose that the practice school is such only in name. Sometimes there is almost absolute

unity. These conditions and relations may be classified roughly as follows:

1. The normal school sometimes has no practice school at all. In such cases practice work must be carried on by teaching one's own classmates-in imagination making children of them and letting them in imagination conduct themselves as children. This is good practice for the imagination and has some definite worth as practice, but it is only a make-shift for real practice work. 2. Generally the normal school has a practice school of some sort. Plans of articulation with the normal school however are widely divergent. They may be grouped as follows:—

(1) Sometimes by special arrangement the normal school has the privilege of using one grade or more in various schools in the city, town, district, or state, now with resident critics, again with itinerant critics.

(2) Sometimes by co-operation in financial support a normal school takes over one of the local schools for practice purposes, occasionally even using one of its own buildings for the purpose. Under these conditions various combinations as to control and support are possible. Now the practice school is under the same management as the normal school; again it has a separate management with a special principal, or with the superintendent of the local school system as principal or leading critic. Thus normal school control of its practice school is sometimes complete, sometimes only partial or nominal.

(3) Again the normal school has a practice school wholly its own, to which pupils are admitted by application, either with or without tuition. The superior educational advantages of such a school, because it has picked teachers and can be readily organized to give special attention to pupils, makes admission to it much sought. In some cases the normal school is situated in the midst of a large graded public school where it has complete freedom of action. Because this school represents real public school conditions it makes the most effective practice school.

The use of the practice school is even more varied than the conditions just noted.

1. Sometimes the practice school is used for observation only. 2. Sometimes the normal student teaches a lesson occasionally, perhaps a single lesson daily. In other schools she remains for an

hour only. In still other schools she remains for observation after teaching. In other cases she is given full charge of a grade, but generally for a short time only, sometimes merely for a few minutes. But in some practice systems the student practically "lives" in the practice class during the whole time of her assignment which lasts for a substantial period, and thus has abundant and varied opportunities to study and teach,-to share in all the work of the grade and put herself to practical tests in it all. Hence there are all degrees of effectiveness in the use of the practice department.

3. As to the amount of time devoted to this part of professional training, practice teaching sometimes continues for a few months or weeks, sometimes for a year.

4. On the other hand there is great variety in the scope of the work. Sometimes the student's whole practice is in a single grade. Again practice teaching is required in several grades. And still again, it includes service for substantial periods in all grades.

As to the method of training to teach, the main dependence is of course upon critic work and discussions with the students under training. Critic work is sometimes general, sometimes departmental. In some cases there are special critics for each practice grade, in other cases there are only supervisory critics. In some cases the two plans are combined to the advantage of both. Sometimes the teachers of the professional studies act as supervisory critics and thus keep their own class work in close touch with the actual work of the school where it must find its application and

test.

From what has been said it is evident that there is no uniformity in the organization and administration of practice work. The principles of practice work seem unsettled. As a result this feature of professional training is frequently merely fragmentary and perfunctory, and students go out from the normal school with little practical training for their work. Practice work needs far better organization than it has in many cases, more serious pedagogical thinking, and more systematic administration, to put students in touch with real school conditions and to join the work of the practice department and the students' professional studies more closely and organically.

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